Won’t name names, won’t name places, not even the airline, but had a conversation on a crew bus from the employee parking lot with an FO from a major who is probably a good decade plus younger than me. My “late start in the business” as he described it, I explained was due to time in the military as a back seater and then having to go the GI Bill route for civilian pilot training. Somewhat to my amazement, this triggered an anti military diatribe about the immorality of war and military service and he expressed revulsion for anyone (in general and me in particular) who would support our “corporatist and imperialist military policies.”

I really didn’t want to argue with a fool - OK, maybe I did - but I felt compelled to point out that his major airline was a CRAF airline and that if the proverbial balloon went up, he’d be carrying military pax and cargo just like AMC. Heck, they made up a considerable portion of the airlift for the whole TPFDL. Of course he instantly called me a liar, but through the magic of smartphones and G3 I was able to show him.

He rode in stunned silence all the rest of the way to the terminal.

Don’t they teach kids anything these days?

 

Yes, they teach them what this kid was spouting. Are you really that surprised?

 

I do like the watermelon thing, green on the outside, red inside.

 

Well played. It sounds like you might have been the first ex-military pilot he's ever encountered or spouted off to. I somehow suspect you won't be the last. He's in for a rude awakening down the road. Hope he either grows up or learns to button up.

 

The guy proves once again "you can't fix stupid".
I'm sure he believes the Green New Deal is brilliance.

 

I knew a pilot who spouted the same stuff. Turned out he washed out of military flight training.

 

Or maybe he got washed out...

 

There are crackpots in every airline. When I was in training at AAL, I remember having to specifically opt in/out of CRAF flying. At DAL, they teach it at indoc but I don't remember being asked if wished to opt-out.

 

At my airline you used to have to opt in. Then for awhile it was opt out.

Another item, not all airplanes at each airline are necessarily part of the CRAF fleet.

Generally, this is decided at the time the airline acquires the aircraft. The military generally wants certain things that an airline would frequently omit from an aircraft order, such as strengthened floors and possibly heavier gross weight, that would not be practical to install later. In general the USAF pays a negotiated fee up front for these modifications on the assembly line, and an ongoing fuel surcharge to compensate the airline for the increased fuel consumption from the higher empty weight.

Some aircraft, particularly those acquired used from a foreign airline may not meet the military's needs, and thus would be excluded from the CRAF.

When the military decides that it needs to activate CRAF, then the military has control of those aircraft. In general the military prefers that the usual airline pilots fly their company's planes. If, however, the company cannot produce enough pilots willing and able to fly the flights that the military wants flown, then the military can use any pilots that they choose. They could even assign Delta 737s to American to fly, if American has enough surplus pilots.

As far as I know, actual CRAF has never been invoked, but the threat is always there, so the airlines are quite happy to charter planes to the military.

The military does a great deal of chartering airliners. Many pilots referred to charters flying into Kuwait and Afghanistan supporting the military as CRAF flying, but it was not. It was just "normal" charter work.

Joe

 

I remember during 'Nam, Continental Air Services had all kinds of critters.